The past two months had been stressful for Yui. There was the obvious ever present worry about Izuku once he was put into the coma and yet, the times when she visited him in hospital seemed to be the most relaxed times in her life at the moment.

At home, everything was more or less fine but her parents could be hectic, especially her father who was always coming home excited about some new gadget or other trinket he'd inevitably break or almost kill himself with.

And watching him constantly mess about with things like drills and almost taking his eye out was surely going to take years off her life, as were the police visits after the story about what had happened with Izuku had gotten out.

They were investigating the incident of course, and Yui had barely even processed that it needed to be investigated as she'd spent too much time fretting over Izuku for it to cross her mind.

She'd given them all the information she could and hoped for the best but she was honestly doubtful anything would happen. She knew Bakugou was protected by Aldera, who were so excited for their 'perfect hero course student' that they'd deflect every single claim and probably try and find a way to make Izuku take the blame for it.

That was if the police even investigated it properly instead of deciding that it wasn't worth their time cause the victim was someone quirkless. It was infuriating to know that despite her want for Izuku to get justice, she was far more expectant of him getting none.

As for at school, that was the most stressful. She had been pretty much forced into coming out of her shell more than she wanted to, to go to classroom's she'd never been to, fight panic attacks to knock on the door and explain she was there to pick up Midoriya's work.

The real stressful moments had been with the teachers who either automatically assumed Izuku was being a troublemaker for no reason but prejudice, making her need to try to calm herself or when one even refused and tried to justify that it was Izuku's fault and he could suffer the consequences.

Yui had gotten into her first ever fight with a teacher that day and a part of her still froze, shrivelled up and died at the horror of knowing she had ended up arguing back to a teacher, even if they were an undeniable asshole.

She needed to get her mind off of that before she got all panicked remembering it though, so she instead turned her mind to the day she had gone with Izuku to the hospital. There had been a horrible few hours of them getting everything set up for Izuku and some panic over some interesting anomalies happening when he was given a room, but for the most part eventually Yui just found herself sitting and watching over him protectively while wishing for him to get better.

She wasn't sure when Inko Midoriya had arrived, but she'd been alerted to the older woman by a small gasp of horror and she'd looked up to see the woman staring at her son with scared, heartbroken eyes as she had shakily stepped in and examined him. It was only after a few moments she had turned and realized Yui was there.

"Oh um…. Hello. You must be the girl they said came in as 'family'?" She asked, raising a brow curiously. Yui went red.

"Sorry. Didn't want to leave him." She explained simply and quietly, worried the woman would be angry with her actions. Instead, however, she got a soft smile.

"That's…. nice. It's nice to know that someone was looking out for him. Do you know him? You look a bit familiar…" Inko pondered, coming over and sitting down beside her while keeping a watchful eye on her son.

"Mm." she nodded, biting her lip a tad. "Go to the same school."

Inko looked worried for a moment, opening her mouth. "Ah, and you um... you don't-"

"I hate the way other people treat him." Yui said simply but with an air of finality to her tone to assure the woman she didn't mean any harm to Izuku. She was kind of surprised with herself to be honest, as this was the first conversation she'd ever had outside of ones with her parents where she had said a few sentences and it hadn't blown up in her face. The older woman sighed in relief. "I sometimes leave bandages and stuff for him."

"That is good to hear." Inko sighed sadly. "I want to move, get him out of that school but his father is insistent on him staying there… and no one seems to care about him just because, because…"

"It's horrible." Yui nodded in understanding. Inko looked at her as if she expected her to leave but Yui didn't budge.

"I won't keep you. The doctors already have the account of what happened, so you don't need to stay." She said quietly. Yui planted herself firmly into her seat and spoke up almost in a whisper.

"I want to stay." She said shyly, her face turning a bit red. Inko blinked before smiling very kindly.

"Well, I suppose I can't deny 'family' from visiting." She said with good humour, although the shakiness in her voice betrayed how it was nothing but a coping mechanism as she did her best not to freak out in front of the girl. "I won't tell them you're not his cousin or whatever you said to them to let you in, just promise me you'll keep being nice to him after this."

"I promise." Yui said without hesitating. Her only wish, left unspoken, was that she could be nicer to him going forward by actually talking to him. Following their meeting, Yui came by every day, only taking responsibility for his schoolwork two weeks in when they realized the coma would not be a short affair even slightly.

Inko had assured her the first couple of days she didn't need to come in but Yui had insisted and slowly, something about Inko had changed not that Yui had noticed for a while. Her small smiles turned more into grins, her eyes got a twinkle the longer time went on and she began to talk more and more about the potential things Izuku and Yui could do when he woke up instead of just what he might do.

It had been something Yui had eventually asked the woman about when she'd started bringing the homework for Izuku, curious why Inko's behaviour seemed more… coy as time went on. Her answer had been both incredibly vague and yet also very embarrassing for poor shy Yui.

"I see the look in your eyes when you look at him and talk about him. I remember when I had a look like that. I'm sure you'll be great… friends when he wakes up." Inko had giggled, winking before she had left.

Yui had been red-faced for a long time after that as she internally panicked about the possibility she had figured out her crush, not even stopping to realize that if she had she was fully supportive based on her words.

And she-

Izuku suddenly turned in his sleep before her, making her eyes go wide. She was in the hospital as always, in a blue blouse and black leggings having been spending some time just watching him while she had been remembering all that had happened.

Oh god, was this finally it!? What if she messed up!? What if she said something wrong and made him hate her right away? What if he thought she was someone responsible for hurting him somehow?! Maybe he'd-

She failed to notice his eyes open and was only forced out of her panic attack by the boy suddenly shooting straight up in bed. Her brain was going blank as it practically fried itself yet some words did at least manage to escape her.

"Oh uh… hang on, please try to be calm."

Oh great, her first words to him were going to be completely hypocritical cause she was anything but calm! Was she talking to herself as well?! Her face locked into a single expression as screams of panic tore through her mind.

"W-Where am I?" He asked confused yet seemingly with no real panic, yet he still sounded small, fitting in with how cute and sweet he looked- She needed to focus on anything else if she didn't want to begin hyperventilating!

"In a hospital." She managed to get out. What now?! Did she tell him who she was?! Did she explain they were classmates now? Or neighbours?! Did she tell him she wanted to be friends yet or was this something to wait for. She had to say something though, she had to tell him something! "You should lie back down for the moment. I will get a doctor."

…

God she hated herself sometimes.

"U-Uh, who a-are you?" He asked quietly, tilting his head confused. He'd given her a second chance! 'Just collect yourself, Yui. Calm, deep breath and tell him calmly exactly who you are and why you're here.'

"Oh… Yui Kodai, I found you." She said, her eyes imperceptibly growing as she growled internally at herself. She meant to tell him more than that! Why couldn't she do this!? Just talk to him! You were talking now- Oh god they were talking now and she probably just sounded like a weirdo and would she be even worse when she began talking properly to him!?"

"O-Oh… t-thank you f-for taking me in then."

Yui panicked and felt her heart lurch. She had to deal with this but all her anxiety came piling on hard! She shouldn't run, she shouldn't run, she shouldn't-

"Mm."

And she turned and she ran. Her throat tightened and she felt a stinging in the back of her eyes that she did her best to ignore. She passed Inko in the cafeteria and put on her best poker face. "Izuku's awake."

And off the woman had shot with so much speed you'd have thought it was her quirk, while Yui had quickly hurried out the door and walked into a back alley, collapsing against the wall.

And then she sobbed. And she sobbed and she sobbed, for god knows how long as she gripped her leggings tight and yelled at herself mentally every insult she could think of, hating how she'd completely failed to talk to him when he'd been right there.

Their first conversation and she botched it so bad! She was an idiot! He'd probably be too freaked out to speak with her again…

Shaking her head, she snarled. No! She had kept doing this! She kept running but he knew she existed for sure now!

And she'd have to bring him all his homework, so she could fix it then, really talk to him!

With that resolve, she'd hurried home, determined to get there as soon as possible, mainly so people in public didn't see her and theorize about why the 'little girl' had been crying. The only thing that slowed her down had been some manic protestor in the main park in the city she had to walk through to get home, shouting up a storm to all passers-by.

"WE ALL KNOW THEY EXIST! YET THE POLICE AND THE PROS STAND BY AND DO SOMETHING! WE MUST STAND UP! WHO WILL BE NEXT?! YOUR HUSBAND, YOUR WIFE?! YOUR MOTHER OR YOUR CHILD?! IT COULD BE ANYONE OF US!" The protestor had been screaming hysterically. Yui had just avoided eye contact and continued on. The last thing she wanted to think about was the conspiracy theory about a dark villainous gang hidden within their city. It was the last thing she needed to think about right now. The quiet girl didn't spare said group another thought all the way home once she got out the park.

After a somewhat tense dinner as Yui refused to tell her parents why her eyes were all red, she had gone to her room, played on her laptop for a while and gone to sleep, ignoring the single All Might poster on the wall at the bottom of her bed proclaiming 'You can do it!' which felt like it was taunting her. The rest of the room was also filled with plenty of hero merchandise, such as posters of the Wild Wild Pussycats all over along with Ryukyu, Edgeshot and even some lesser known heroes like Phantom Shade, Heatwave, Queen Wolf and Sandy. Last but not least was her personal idol as a child, Tomato Gal.

She at least managed to fall asleep feeling safe with so many pro heroes looking down at her. A part of her despite the awkwardness couldn't help but smile at the fanaticism she and Izuku shared, if in different ways.

The next day, she had gotten a text from Inko, who had insisted on getting the girls number at the end of the first month, alerting her that Izuku was being taken out the hospital and when the raven haired girl had inquired why Inko had sent the address Inko had just send a laughing emoji and said she knew Yui wouldn't need it.

That made the girl feel embarrassed for sure, the older woman had figured out where she recognized Yui from them. Apparently she'd be bringing him home around the afternoon so the girl considered bringing the textbooks tomorrow then so that Izuku could have a good few hours to just get used to being home first.

As for herself, she hadn't much to do at all as she was excused from school this particular day to attend an event with her family in the morning, a wedding between her auntie Uraraka and her girlfriend she had been dating for the past three years.

The reception had been over by the time Izuku would have presumably been on his way home, but as far as Yui had been able to see, he wasn't home when her family got back to their apartment and her dad, Reo Kodai, had immediately gotten to work on setting up a gift her auntie Uraraka had shoved off onto him from a less thoughtful gift. Yui wasn't even really sure what it was beyond knowing it was somewhat bulky and had a very wound up and badly packaged wire.

She'd not really paid attention to her parents bickering over it as she watched her and her mother's favourite sit-com, so she'd been very caught off-guard when her mother had suddenly screamed and the girl looked up just in time for her ever stoic face to change into one of horror as she realized the wire was falling over the edge of the outer balcony as her father also assuredly have.

Her mind and heart raced as she rushed over, scared about what she'd see yet being both relieved and confused when he wasn't there. There was no way he could save himself with his Extension quirk if he couldn't touch the balcony's and none of them looked like their dimensions had changed. She then heard his groaning on the balcony below and immediately sprinted for him.

Once she got down the stairs however, the rounded the corner and spotted Izuku before instantly stepping back as instinct overwhelmed her and she hid, her mother shooting past. A pair of urgent footsteps behind her made her turn to see a confused and worried Inko Midoriya rushing for Izuku as well.

She heard both man and teenager being fussed over and, too scared to step out and face Izuku yet with zero preparation, she instead ran back up the stairs and headed for her apartment to get ice and a first aid kit for her father and whatever else he might need.

She ran into her room and went for her emergency box. It was a child's toy building block that had the top cut out, and was made much bigger by her father's quirk to allow stuff to be stored in it that might be needed in an emergency. She of course had gotten it when she was quite small.

His quirk, Extension, allowed him to manipulate the dimensions of any object merely by looking at them and focusing on changing the desired dimensions, though it was entirely reliant on his own measurements so he could easily make things far too big or wide and destroy the structural integrity of them, especially as they never got any heavier despite the size change. If the box before her was any bigger it would float away if there wasn't stuff in it.

Combine that with her mother's quirk, Weight, which allowed her to make anything she touched with all five fingers either heavier or lighter, at the cost of the weight being absorbed or taken away from her mother's own body and you got Yui's quirk size.

And now she was pulling an Izuku and going off on a quirk rant in her head to stop her panicking! She had to get back to preparing all this, as she heard her mother bring her father in.

Once they'd confirmed he was really okay and had no more than a small bump from crashing onto the balcony below, her mother, Yuma Kodai, went ballistic on him shouting at him not to worry them like that while Yui just hugged him in relief he was okay, Izuku was forgotten for the moment as she just was happy they were okay.

But when she'd eventually gone back to her room, going onto HeroTube, a Youtube knock off meant solely for hero videos, she couldn't help but get distracted while watching videos of her old idol Tomato Gal, wondering just how on earth Izuku had saved her father.

Because that was the only explanation for how the man hadn't splatted against the far below ground, Izuku must have saved him. The question was how? If Izuku was quirkless, how could he have possibly had the reaction time to catch her father? For that matter what was he doing on the balcony alone one floor below his house?

There was something just not adding up there for her. Maybe, just maybe, she could bring herself to ask when she finally brought the homework?

She should have known by now that wasn't how her anxiety rolled. Fortunately, she had managed to bring the homework to the Midoriya house and when there had been a call to come in she had taken it, stepping into the apartment for the first and hopefully not last time of her life, taking it all in.

It was a cosy little place that almost looked like her house in reverse, but with wildly different colours, green and soft purple being the main colour placed against the white walls. Her own apartment had vibrant red walls with soft yellow and orange furniture around the place, giving a warm feeling inside it. The Midoriya apartment was more cool in its shades yet homely and warm all the same.

"Mrs. Midoriya. I brought Izuku's homework." Yui managed to force out in an even voice as she held up the bag with the work, making the woman looking over from the couch smile as she stood up.

"Oh, thank you dear! Just put it on the table there." She instructed and Yui followed, just in time to see Izuku appearing from the hall curious. She had to fight the urge to turn and bolt, feeling her face already heating up a tad as she nodded her head at him.

She opened her mouth, a part of her wanting to say 'hello neighbour', feeling that would be a good opening line. Instead what came out was…

"Mm. You're up." She stated painfully obviously, feeling like an idiot even as she said it. A part of her screeching in frustration she bowed and turned. "Good day."

Inko frowned but didn't say anything even as she let out a sigh and Izuku let out a confused goodbye. Yui really wanted to turn back, say something proper, talk to him but she felt she'd already blown it for today, even a rational part of her knew that wasn't true. She knew she was just being a scaredy-cat cause she didn't want to mess up, yet convincing her body to stop it was proving a losing battle so far-

"IZUKU!" Inko's sudden shout got Yui to turn and she saw Izuku was standing all the way on the other end of the room with his homework in hand. But how had he gotten over there so fast? There would have been no time in the short span of time she was turned around to get that far with all that without her hearing. "Don't do that! You'll give me a heart attack!"

"S-Sorry…" Izuku said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Maybe he'd leapt over the couch or something? It was the only explanation that came to mind…

Spotting her, Izuku let out a small nervous squeak and turned away as his face went more red in embarrassment and for the first time, Yui managed a small smile while he was looking at her, his face going redder.

One thing that had never really properly occurred to her, Izuku was just as nervous and as shy as he was. Oh sure it had 'occurred' to her in ways where it involved him running from her but for the first time she realized with a small start he'd probably be just as nervous about talking to her.

And she felt just a tad more confident as she left. Maybe, just maybe, if she could find excuses to actually keep getting near him maybe she'd finally work up the confidence to talk to him…

She didn't go to his apartment for the next week following that, feeling far too nervous despite her plan. It was pretty much exactly a week and a half after she had made the plan she hadn't followed through with at all that she ended up finally going to his house again.

The reason? When she'd been on her way home from school, she'd passed by the very same grocery store she'd gone to the day she'd taken Izuku to hospital only to see police there talking to the owner, with two villains tied up on the ground.

Being the hero nerd that she secretly was, it had been impossible to resist the temptation to sneak closer and listen when she'd heard the word vigilante come up from one of the officers.

"I suppose it's possible." The owner said, sounding mostly bewildered. "I mean, like a told ya, one second the tall one's waving a gun in my face, I think I'm gonna die and no heroes anywhere in sight. Hell, still no heroes, do you see any around? Freakin' some protectors… anyways, like I said, there was a sudden really bright trail of green coloured lightning or something and next thing I knew the guns were in the bin and the two villains there were knocked out and tied up to the freezer section."

Well, that certainly sounded strange…

"And was there anyone else in the store when this happened?" One of the officers had asked, jotting down what he was being told in a notepad.

"Well there had been this green haired kid, just before the villains came in but he was gone." Yui blinked. Green hair? …No, it was surely coincidence… "I reckon he musta run as soon as he realized a stick up was happening, ya know? Don't blame 'im, he was probably scared outta his mind."

Okay, definitely not Izuku then. If she knew one thing about the boy, it was that he didn't run from fights, no matter how much he probably should have. In fact she'd admit it seemed he ran into fights a lot, just never from them when someone was in trouble.

It was one of the reasons Yui had fallen for him while watching him from the sidelines. One of the big reasons, as well.

With a sigh, she took off on her way. Green lightning certainly had her curious though. A vigilante who might have had involvement with green lightning? Maybe they had been around when Izuku had been hit.

Maybe they had been what had hit Izuku! It was that thought that had her running to the Midoriya's.

She had knocked on the door as urgently as possible and walked in to find the two on the couch, looking confused. She had to take a deep calming breath with Izuku there just to speak but speak she did, explaining she might now have a theory on what had hit Izuku.

That had gotten the two to sit up fast. Doing her best not to look at the boy to not be deterred, she had told them what had happened on her way home and she vaguely noticed Inko was keeping one eye on Izuku at all times as though suspicious.

Maybe he was there? She noted on the way out that Izuku looked almost sheepish, as though he was guilty. Surely that couldn't be it though, right?

Right?

A few weeks (and several attempts to talk to Izuku that all failed due to her own nervousness) later and the lightning had been seen a few more times, some even claiming to have seen someone with a green suit appearing in the lightning. Always in situations where it seemed no heroes were around to really do anything, though this was getting more and more debatable as time went on and the situations began to seem less likely they were completely out the realm of pro heroes intervening.

Then finally, Yui got to meet the Bolt, as local hero forums had taken to calling the rumoured vigilante. Not everyone believed they existed because surely no vigilante with that kind of power would stay in hiding or even be a vigilante when they could probably easily become a pro hero.

Yui was sure they did exist, she couldn't see any reason for the grocery store cashier to lie about the vigilante existing which merely raised the question of why?

That, she had no idea of. She hadn't realized, almost another two months were she and Izuku were finally on basic speaking terms but had still never really held a proper conversation, that she'd be getting answers soon.

It had started with her newest attempt to talk and it was arguably one of her most successful, even if she didn't get past the Midoriya's front door. She had stood at it for over an hour with pure determination though, refusing to let her brain scare her into actively running away even if worries coursed through her mind every single time she raised her fist to knock on the door, until finally she was rescued (or condemned) by the bell.

Her mother had called out to her, asking her if she could go out and get groceries again while her father was at work and her mother was cooking. Yui had taken off with a sigh, ignoring the self-loathing over her inability to handle one simple conversation.

That's what troubled her the most. It would only take one conversation to get the truth out and have it done, yet her brain betrayed her at every turn. She knew it wasn't normal, but it was also unfortunately part of her and it was liable to drive her nuts.

She had quietly accepted that she was her own worst enemy and had left to go get the groceries. The shopping itself had at least been decently relaxing and a good way to get her brain to wind down and stop freaking out.

What had been less good for it was the man who started stalking her once she left the shop, joined by another friend. She thought it odd he didn't leave until she did but assumed coincidence at first, until she had turned two different corners and he was still following her, a friend having joined him. A friend with similar dress sense.

She gulped and turned a corner, taking a diversion. It would go back on itself, so no one would take it coming from where she had just come from unless they didn't know the place or….

She felt her heart start beating rapidly in her chest when they followed her into the street, and spotted a man also in similar clothing coming from the other way and without a second thought ran into the alley nearby hoping to shake them off.

She heard footsteps running behind her which really began to freak her out as she twisted and turned and then… she found the last thing she wanted to see, a big stone wall.

"Well, guess the pretty face doesn't mean she's a dumb one." A cold voice sneered behind her and she turned to see five men had arrived, all with similar sneering expressions and a few activating quirks while others pulled out weapons. "Don't worry girly, we won't hurt you… if you hand over all the yen you got. Must have a lot to get that much stuff in the bags."

Yui had taken a step back, looking around for a way to fight back. She didn't see anything she could throw at them and she had taken the first coat she had found in a rush to escape, not taking her usual coat which she kept lined up with small trinkets to be safe but one of her mom's old coats that had nothing but empty pockets. She'd used all the yen anyways. She had nothing to give them!

She supposed she could use the groceries but…

"Aww, she's too scared to speak. Mind you, she could make herself look it at least." The ringleader, a bald and skinny man said as he stepped forward, having pulled a baseball bat out from… somewhere and now smacking it against his hands. There was a large fat man with shaggy black hair on his right and a short but vicious looking man with dog mutations even further right. On the left was a gangly looking villain with rotten teeth and dark green eyes, and a small patch of grey hair on his head. Finally the furthest left villain looked the most like a general teenager, with brown spiky hair and a bored glazed expression, looking exceptionally plain.

Except when she locked eyes with the last one she found that even when she did try to finally speak up, she couldn't. One of them, probably the one she locked eyes with as his pupils were unnaturally bright.

Was this really about to happen? Was she really about to get into a fight with five villains? If she couldn't shout no hero was coming unless-

Almost as if by a thought, there was a sudden rushing of wind and suddenly, a sixth figure stood behind the man. Short, he was… Izuku's height? In clothes clearly meant for users of fire quirks that looked far too baggy on his spray painted dark green, a crudely attached neon lightning sticker on the chest and with a firefighter's helmet on covering their face, which was vibrating underneath the glass presumably to hide their identity was standing there.

Yui blinked twice. That was Bolt?!

Then he said something, in a very distorted voice, that accidentally gave away the truth.

"GET AWAY FROM KODAI!"